Down the TBR Hole #2

Lia at Lost in a Story created an awesome challenge: to weed out your Goodreads TBR pile one week at a time! See the full intro post and rules here.

After last week's post, I'm picking up on page 10 of my Goodreads TBR:

1. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through supernatural glamours.

She’s also about to find out that she may be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

Paranormal romance isn't really my jam. Nothing's jumping out at me about this, so I think it's GONE!

2. Mind Games by Kiersten White

Fia and Annie are as close as two sisters can be. They look out for each other. Protect each other. And most importantly, they keep each other's secrets, even the most dangerous ones: Annie is blind, but can see visions of the future; Fia was born with flawless intuition—her first impulse is always exactly right. 

When the sisters are offered a place at an elite boarding school, Fia realizes that something is wrong . . . but she doesn't grasp just how wrong. The Keane Institute is no ordinary school, and Fia is soon used for everything from picking stocks to planting bombs. If she tries to refuse, they threaten her with Annie's life.

Now Fia's falling in love with a boy who has dark secrets of his own. And with his help, she's ready to fight back. They stole her past. They control her present. But she won't let them take her future.

I keep seeing this one crop up on Goodreads, so I figure I'll give it a shot. KEEP!

3. Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school. She hangs out with her best friend, Kevin; she obsesses over Mark, a cute and mysterious bad boy; and her biggest worry is her paper deadline.

But then everything changes. The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of killings that share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie's circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, "You need it. It will save your soul." Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies in an epic battle for immortality.

I'm hesitant to read YA mysteries because they tend to be really watered down on the horror, but the mythology part sounds cool. KEEP!

4. A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence

You are sixteen. You live with your father in a big Victorian house on the outskirts of London. Your mother is dead, killed in a train crash two years ago. It is snowing. The snow is falling on the house and the wide yard and the gnarled old tree that everyone calls the Family Tree. It makes you restless. You reach out your hands toward an object you've known all your life, and suddenly the walls melt away. When you open your eyes, you are still in your living room. "Who are you?" asks a girl who looks just like you but is not you. "And what are you doing in my house?"

You have stumbled into another version of your life. This girl is sixteen. She lives with your father (her father) in a big Victorian house on the outskirts of London. Your mother (her mother) is not dead. She had a close call in a train crash two years ago. Listen: your mother is calling you (her) now.

Sounds kind of cool, but reviews aren't great. I'm going to pass. GONE!

5. You by Charles Benoit

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

You’re just a typical fifteen-year-old sophomore, an average guy named Kyle Chase. This can’t be happening to you. But then, how do you explain all the blood? How do you explain how you got here in the first place?

There had to have been signs, had to have been some clues it was coming. Did you miss them, or ignore them? Maybe if you can figure out where it all went wrong, you can still make it right. Or is it already too late?

Think fast, Kyle. Time’s running out. How did this happen?

Not quite sure what this is about, but sounds interesting. KEEP!

Down the TBR Hole: Intro and #1

Lia at Lost in a Story created an awesome challenge: to weed out your Goodreads TBR pile one week at a time! See the full intro post and rules here.

Since my oldest TBRs are a lot of classics, I jumped to page 9, which was about mid-2012, and started axing from there.

Here's my first week of trimming my TBR:

1. Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Moments after several huge earthquakes shake every continent on Earth, something strange starts happening to some people. An inner rage has been released and some people cannot fight it. For those who can, life becomes an ongoing battle to survive - at any cost!

The Judgment: I literally can't fathom why this was on my TBR. GONE!

2. The Shattering by Karen Healey

Keri, Janna, and Sione have one thing in common: Their older brothers are dead. Each death was ruled a suicide, but there were no notes, no warnings, and no explanations.

So they've worked out a theory: Their brothers were murdered - and weren't the only victims.

As the search for the serial killer goes on, mysterious forces are unearthed and suspicion is cast on the those the three trust most. When secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?

The Judgment: An LGBTQIA+ murder mystery? How the heck have I forgotten this? KEEP!

3. For the Win by Cory Doctorow

In the virtual future, you must organize to survive

At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual "gold," jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world's poorest countries, where countless "gold farmers," bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.

...

The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister's people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

The Judgment: I love Cory Doctorow! KEEP!

4. Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe

1Meet Jasmine, 2 forensic supersleuth, 3 aspiring Model Daughter, 4 and friend to animals. 5 One second she's trying to enjoy her Vegas Vacation, 6 the next she's tangled up in an outrageous adventure and has to outwit a crazed killer before he ends ten lives, one of them her own. 

The Judgment: Eew, sounds way too manic pixie dream girl. GONE!

5. Hana by Lauren Oliver

The summer before they're supposed to be cured of the ability to love, best friends Lena and Hana begin to drift apart. While Lena shies away from underground music and parties with boys, Hana jumps at her last chance to experience the forbidden. For her, the summer is full of wild music, dancing—and even her first kiss.

But on the surface, Hana must be a model of perfect behavior. She meets her approved match, Fred Hargrove, and glimpses the safe, comfortable life she’ll have with him once they marry. As the date for her cure draws ever closer, Hana desperately misses Lena, wonders how it feels to truly be in love, and is simultaneously terrified of rebelling and of falling into line.

The Judgment: Hana is like the least interesting character in a series I barely liked. No thanks, GONE!